Watching more than one show at the same time used to involve setting up multiple displays or quickly toggling between channels during commercial breaks. Picture-in-picture support, DVR, and streaming television have all changed that, but watching three or more shows on the same large TV is still limited. That changes today for PlayStation Vue customers who own an Apple TV.
PlayStation 4 remote play has been a fairly major focus for Sony this generation. First it came to the PlayStation Vita, then it landed on Android as a feature for some of Sony's Xperia phones. That was way back in 2014, and all this time, we've been wondering if this functionality would ever come to iOS. Today that long-standing question was finally answered, as Sony has launched a PS4 Remote Play app on the iOS App Store.
Few companies can boast of having businesses that make the components for their own smartphones. Many of the critical parts of Samsung phones come from the company's multiple businesses and the same can be said for LG screens and batteries. It is then both puzzling and ironic that Xperia phones have not benefited from Sony's expertise in imaging. Now a Sony exec is coming clean and points to past internal conflict between businesses as the root cause of this sad state of affairs.
Some PlayStation 4 owners have reported successfully getting refunds for Anthem, claiming that Sony readily offered them their money back upon request. Online reports from customers claim they were provided a full refund after citing the game's "broken" nature to chat representatives. News of the refunds comes amid new reports claiming the BioWare game is causing some PS4 consoles to crash and, in some cases, bricking them.
If you've been following the gaming world, you've probably already heard the bad news: the PlayStation Vita has officially been discontinued. We first caught wind of Sony's plans a couple of weeks ago, when it updated the listings for the two remaining PS Vita models to say that production would be ending soon. Then, over the weekend - only a short time after those updated listings were discovered - Sony finally pulled the plug.
Before MWC, Sony was expected to show three new smartphones, not including any Plus variants. Come MWC last week, however, Sony pointed all the attention at the Xperia 1 and the Xperia 10 and 10 Plus. It didn't forget about the Xperia L3, however, but chose to let its obnoxiously wide smartphones take center stage, leaving the more conventional and more normal budget-level model fend for itself.
The writing has been on the wall for months but the ax has finally fallen. PS Vita mortuus est! Sony has officially ceased the production of its remaining gaming handheld console after months of winding down everything connected to it. And with no plans for a successor of any kind, Sony has practically surrendered that market to Nintendo as the Switch continues to outsell, or at least out-hype, both Sony's PlayStation 4 and Microsoft's Xbox One.
Sony has revealed the free PlayStation Plus games for March and the list of free games is a fair bit shorter than we're used to seeing. That's because Sony has ended support for the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita beginning in March. Though PS3 and PS Vita users can still subscribe to PlayStation Plus and receive other benefits, they'll no longer receive free games each month.
Do you want to have the future of mobile in your hands ASAP? If you ask Sony, that's not in the super expensive foldable phones that Samsung and Huawei have yet to launch. For the Japanese OEM, smartphones are going wide. Wide screen, that is. To make its point, it has as made its ultimate wide screen design available not only on the high-end Xperia 1 but also on the affordable Xperia 10 and Xperia 10 Plus. Now those two mid-range phones are ready for pre-orders for those in the US who want this ultra wide, ultra tall oddity.
The past few days may have been filled with mobile news but the computing industry wasn't content to be silent either. The USB Implementers Forum (USB IF), for example, has announced the new unified USB 3.2 branding and new microSD Express cards have launched with even better speeds to meet new demands today. Not te be left behind, Sony has announced the development of the CFexpress Type B, its latest CompactFlash memory card, that would run circles around its fastest CFast cards.
Sony has just restarted the Xperia line with the Xperia 1 but when it reaches the Xperia 9, it might be at a loss what to call the next flagship. That's because it has also just announced the Xperia 10 and Xperia 10 Plus, the mid-range options for a new 21:9 wide screen trend that Sony is trying to start.
Sony was once regarded as the slow-moving dinosaur of the smartphone world but, in three years' time, it had changed its business and marketing strategy twice already. The first was in 2016 when the company redefined its "Xperia" brand to refer to almost any product that had elements of AI in it, not just smartphones. Then just last year, it changed its design language that has been both an icon and a liability. This year, Sony is at it again, restarting its smartphone numbering from 1 with the new Xperia 1, heralding a new vision centered around "experiences beyond imagination."